Elections of Legislative Assemblies

Recently, Prime Minister has suggested that elections to the national and state legislatures, panchayats and urban local bodies should be held simultaneously.

Need:

Large amount of money is spent on various elections every year.

Whole administrative machinery gets engaged in election work which affects the productivity of other government services.

Frequent elections bring to a standstill normal functioning of the government cannot announce any new schemes, make any new appointments, transfers or postings without EC approval during this period.

However, frequent elections enhance accountability because it forces the politicians to meet the masses.

Concerns:

Local and national issues will get mix up and will distort priorities.

In voters’ minds national issues might overtake state and local issues or vice versa.

Passing a no confidence motion to conduct the election before expiry of the term will be unconstitutional (Article 83(2) -It is state’s prerogative to decide when to call for elections).

It is also against the federal feature of the constitution.

Not easy to implement: Many times a Government is dissolved prematurely, so in long run having a mismatch in elections in inevitable. For e.g. Consider one old scenario when the Lok Sabha gets dissolved in just 13 days, in 1998.

Parliamentary Panel Recommendations:

Dissolve state assemblies who have a remaining life

Hold elections to half of the state legislatures at the time of Lok Sabha elections and for the rest at the mid-term period of the Lok Sabha. This is similar to the American mid-term elections.

Way Forward:

Simultaneous elections to Panchayats, assembly and Lok Sabha are desirable however they are not feasible.

To make the election process more transparent, cost effective, peaceful and quick we should consider some easily implementable solutions such as: To cut the role of money power in elections, putting a cap on political party expenditure and state funding of political parties.

Also ban on all private, especially corporate funds should be considered.

Reduce the duration of the election process by half by conducting the elections in one day.